Welcome Back Rachel
by EHfan
Summary: Rachel is finally ready to return to Hood's detail, but it isn't as easy as she had thought it would be.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This story is, obviously, set five months after the events in Medea.

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Rachel Young automatically quartered the church with her eyes; her training in security and surveillance kicking in unconsciously in an unfamiliar environment. Her actions weren't missed by her companion, who found it amusing. With a quiet huff of laughter, he leaned over to whisper in her ear.

"That's an old wives tale, you know. The roof won't really fall in just because a heathen like you has set foot in the church."

Rachel suppressed a snort of laughter. She murmured quietly, "I'm not a heathen, I'm an agnostic."

"Tomayto, tomahto," was the whispered reply.

Rachel smiled but shushed her seatmate. She was enjoying the quiet in the large church in the moments before Mass was to begin. She needed this time of reflection; the past five months had been tumultuous to say the least and she was coming to the point where she had to make a serious decision about her future.

Ignoring the man beside her Rachel closed her eyes to better concentrate her thoughts. It was hard for her to believe sometimes that so much time had passed since she had been shot. While her leg was back to normal, there were days when it seemed as if the whole nightmare with Sofia had happened only yesterday.

It had surprised Rachel how long it had taken her to recover. She had started physical therapy while still in the hospital and had worked at her exercises with her usual determination and single-mindedness. Her efforts had pleased her doctors. She was off the crutches within two weeks and dispensed with the cane in another three. Eight weeks after her injury Rachel was declared fit for duty. But to her surprise and disgust, she was not allowed back on Hood's protective detail.

Her detail chief, Tyler McGruder, had decreed that until she could run the obstacle course at Quantico in her pre-injury time, she was going to be assigned to alternate duties. McGruder had her posted to Quantico where she was temporarily attached to the teaching staff at the FBI Academy. She was detailed to assist in surveillance training. She was also informed by McGruder that she would be joining the recruits in their physical training. Rachel had a hunch that he was counting on her competitive streak to act as a spur to regaining her old time.

McGruder knew what he was doing. Within two months her leg was much stronger and she was running the obstacle course in her old time. But teaching at Quantico meant living in the barracks, where her nightmares were eventually noticed and reported.

McGruder had yanked her out of Quantico and assigned her to a desk job in the Hoover Building. He also ordered her to consult one of the Bureau shrinks. He was adamant that until she was cleared psychologically she could forget about being assigned to _any_ protective detail.

Rachel was sure that she would be able to bluff her way through the sessions with the Bureau shrink. After all, she had easily convinced the one she had seen before she left the hospital that the _incident_ hadn't affected her emotionally. She was unpleasantly surprised to find the doctor she saw this time was a lot more perceptive than the other one. It had taken a few sessions, and a lot of soul-searching, before she could admit to and let go of the guilt the shooting had caused her.

Guilt that she had acted so recklessly, had left Hood unprotected while she ran off after Sofia like some damned excited rookie. Guilt at how she had let a civilian get the drop on her, a supposedly trained federal agent. As soon as she had triggered the floodlight, she should have retreated; not stood there like the target she was. It was something of a shock to Rachel when she realized she had been blaming herself for her injury.

With a sigh Rachel acknowledged to herself she still had one more truth she needed to face; one more decision she needed to make. She had never admitted to the shrink, even though he had delicately probed in that direction, that her feelings for Hood had clarified in her mind during her ordeal and in the time she had spent recovering from her injury.

She had readily accepted that they had become friends. In the few months before her injury, however, she had come to realize her feelings for him were changing, that she was beginning to be interested in him as a man, not merely as a friend. She had attempted a date or two to prove to herself her feelings were born of loneliness. They hadn't turned out well but still she couldn't admit to herself that she cared more for him than was safe.

Since her injury she had come to realize how deeply she did care for him; that she wanted, loved him. She remembered how thoughts of him had buoyed her when Sofia had her handcuffed to that bed. How she had known he would be looking for her and she had never doubted that he would find her. Her only worry was he would find her too late. She didn't want to be the cause of any more grief in his life. As weak as she was, she had tried to reassure him it wasn't his fault if she died, that he couldn't fix everything.

All of that was behind her now. Tomorrow, almost five months to the day she had gone running off behind Ray Wynne's burning weekend home, she was back to protective duties. At nine a.m. she had an appointment with Tyler C. McGruder, Detail Chief of the Executive Protection Detail to determine if she should resume her spot as the handler and bodyguard of Dr. Jacob Hood or take another assignment.

But she wasn't sure if she should request to be allowed back on Hood's detail. A slight smile twisted her lips; she remembered how indignant she had been when he had suggested she ask for a transfer. At the time, he had been worried about her safety. Now she was unsure which would be worse, to be with him every day knowing he only considered her a friend or taking another assignment and, given the nature of both their jobs, never seeing him again.

Rachel was pulled from her reverie by a nudge on her shoulder. "Stand up," her companion murmured, "The Mass is starting."

Rachel obediently stood but her mind was not on the liturgy unfolding around her. Instead her thoughts briefly turned to the man beside her, her former high school boyfriend, Denny Herrera. It had been a shock when Denny had announced he was going to enter the seminary. At the time, she had assumed he saw the priesthood as the best way to satisfy his desire to work with the poor and disadvantaged. He had always had a taste for social justice and the priesthood would allow him to follow this calling while providing him with a decent means of support.

She hadn't been too surprised when he had turned up at her door the week before to beg a temporary place to stay. He had been transferred to the DC area and wanted to chance to look around, to check out his new parish incognito, before he took up his duties. It _had_ been a shock to find that Denny's, or she guess she should say Father Herrera's, new job was as the pastor of the suburban church they were currently sitting in. She couldn't see him offering comfort to the complacent people surrounding them.

Rachel bit back a smile; she wondered what it meant that the first man she had ever had sex with was now sworn to celibacy. Did no other women ever measure up to her or was it so awful that he decided it wasn't worth the trouble? That thought caused a snort of laughter that drew a disapproving glance from Denny. Rachel sobered up and tried to pay attention to the service.

But that was hard to do, this was the second Mass they had attended that weekend and she was bored. Her thoughts kept wandering to the scene in the diner, how Hood had held her, stroking her arm as he pleaded with Sofia to allow him to get medical help for her. She had felt safe in his arms. And try as she might, she couldn't help but wish that he would take her in his arms again.

She didn't think that was likely. The few times she had seen him during her convalescence he had been friendly, but politely distant. He had never been a physically demonstrative man so she hadn't been surprised that she had received no more than a head nod and a shy smile when they met. It was hard to tell exactly how he felt about her; she always found it hard to read him emotionally.

Unlike Felix. Rachel smiled as she recalled the bear hug he had swept her up in when they met. With him, it was easy to see that he was fond of her as a person as well as valuing her as a supervisor. He had, without criticizing her replacements, made it clear that he missed her on the team.

At the same time, it wasn't as if she and Hood hadn't been in touch since her injury. He would call her every few days and they would talk, sometimes for as much as an hour. But they rarely strayed into the personal. Instead they would talk about their days, the work each was doing, sharing funny stories of the people and events they encountered. She had to admit that she could have had the same conversations with Felix or any of her friends. She knew how important those calls were to her, she just couldn't tell if Hood found them equally important.

With a start Rachel realized that Denny and the choir had launched into the closing hymn. She followed him from the church, and taking his lead, smiled and murmured greetings to the people around them. She rolled her eyes when Denny insisted on stopping to greet the priest, complimenting him on what was really a rather uninspired homily. It was the same priest who had said the Mass the day before and Denny had said the exact same thing then. The priest had accepted the compliment absently, his eyes moving beyond Denny to the people behind them.

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Rachel sat on one end of the sofa watching Denny at the other end frown over the notes he was making. He was shaking his head and muttering to himself. She felt obscurely sorry for the poor priest who had said the Masses they attended. From the expression on Denny's face the man was going to get an earful when Father Herrera turned up to take over the reins of the parish. Chewing her lip, she considered her relationship with Denny. He was one of her closest friends. True, their lives had taken wildly differing paths and they might go for years without seeing each other; but they had always been able to tell each other everything. She wondered if she should ask him what she should do about Hood and his protective detail.

This was something she couldn't hash over with her other friends. Half of them were FBI, telling them about her feelings for Hood would be tantamount to telling McGruder. They would feel duty bound to report her. The other half would think she was crazy for not telling Hood that she was in love with him. They would urge her to plan some kind of seduction scene. Denny would be the perfect person to tell. Not because he was a priest, although that did help. It wasn't because she believed in the sanctity of confession. It was because he would understand about giving something up, something important, because the job required it. Reaching out with her foot she nudged him.

"Denny? Can I talk to you about something? It's kind of important."

Still looking at his notes, Denny answered absently. "Uh, yeah sure. What is it?"

Rachel kicked him harder. "It's important, put that damned tablet down for a minute, will you?"

Denny looked up with a smile. "So, you finally feel the need for confession and absolution? About time."

His eyebrows rose at the look on her face, a mixture of uncertainty and determination. He hadn't seen her look like that since they were15 years old. Since the day she had decided that they should lose their virginity to each other. He wondered if maybe he hadn't been so far off the mark, maybe she did need to confess. He put down the tablet he had been scribbling on and turned to face her.

"Ok, sorry for the priest humor. You know you can always tell me anything, no judging, no criticism."

Rachel began haltingly, telling him about Hood, how she had been assigned to his detail, the way they had become friends. About how her feelings for him had grown over time, but that she had tried to ignore them. Until she had almost died and realized she couldn't ignore them anymore. She also shared her fear that he would never see her as more than a friend, that he would never recover from the grief caused by the premature death of his wife. Her fear of what would happen if he _did_ return her feelings, how it would mean sacrificing her hard won FBI career.

As he listened to her story, Denny couldn't keep a small smile from his lips. He had been beginning to be worried about her, worried she would never find someone to love, to share her life. He knew she had never been in love before; certainly not with him. What they had when they were teenagers was a relationship fueled by friendship and hormones. He always had a sneaking suspicion that she had engineered the occasion of her father finding them in bed together. Not to get them in trouble, just to piss off her dad. He had learned early on in their friendship that Rachel veered from seeking her father's approval to doing things solely to enrage the man. That aspect of her relationship with her father was the only thing about this Hood guy that was worrying him.

As her tale slowly came to an end, Denny leaned over and took her hands. He looked her in the eyes, his face serious. "I have to ask you something and I don't want you getting mad at me, ok?"

Rachel nodded her head and he took a deep breath. "But I know you. More to the point, I know how you are about your dad. Is there any chance that you've convinced yourself you're in love with this guy because subconsciously you _want_ to getkicked out of the FBI? This way you get free of the Bureau _and_ you get to piss your dad off at the same time?"

She tried to pull her hands away angrily. "You fucking jerk," she spat out. "I pour my heart out to you and you ask me something …"

Denny tightened his grip. "I said don't get mad." He arched an eyebrow at her. "You almost died Rachel, it would be normal to be hesitant about going back to a job where you're required to risk your life as a matter of course. So, I need you to think about this and tell me honestly. Could it be that you're looking at this Hood guy as a way out of a job you're not sure you want to do anymore?"

"No, I'm sure." Rachel took a deep breath to calm herself. "I began falling in love with him long before I got shot." She shrugged, "As for ambivalence about the job, there isn't any. Trust me; I went over all that with the shrink." At Denny's look of surprise she smiled reluctantly. "Yeah, I know, me sharing feelings and stuff. But they ordered me to do it and it helped. But this is one issue I couldn't talk to him about. He's FBI; he would have had to tell my boss."

She shook her head to stop the comment Denny was about to make. "No, patient confidentiality doesn't apply when you see a Bureau shrink. Not when you're talking work stuff. He would have had to tell and I knew that going in."

"Ok," Denny nodded in understanding. "So what's the bottom line here? What do you need to decide?"

"What do I do tomorrow? Everyone, McGruder, Hood, hell, even me, expects me to ask to go back to Hood's detail. Should I Denny? Should I stay or do I go? If I stay with Hood I know that eventually I'll lose him or the job. If I ask to be assigned to a new detail, I'll lose him but I'll keep the job."

"If you love him like you say you do," Denny argued, "why don't you just tell him? You admit that you have a hard time reading him, maybe he's not as grief-stricken as you think."

"I can't tell him." Rachel shook her head decisively. "If I do and he doesn't feel the same it would be to awkward for us to stay working together, he'd be uncomfortable. He'd request that I be transferred. He's too decent to tell them why, so I'll still have a job, but I'll never see him again. And that will kill me. No, if I go back on his detail, I would have to wait and hope that he'll eventually see me as more than a friend. And if that happens and we …, well, I'll have broken about a half-dozen EPD regulations and I'll be thrown out of the Bureau on my ass. I'll lose a job I love and that will kill me."

"I still vote for telling him. Let's look at the best case scenario. He does care for you. What's so awful about a transfer? The two of you would be together but in different jobs. Would that be so terrible? Or, if you're dead set against a transfer, keep the relationship quiet, so you can stay working with him."

"The way our jobs work, we're on the road for days, sometimes weeks at a time. If we weren't working together we'd hardly ever see each other. I couldn't face that. You wouldn't believe how much I've missed him these past few months. As for hiding our relationship," she snorted. "He's too high profile for that, shit, the director's one of his best friends." She added sadly, "Plus, he's really big on honesty. He'd never agree to lie to people like that."

"Ok, worst case scenario. He doesn't care for you. Why would you want to moon over a man who doesn't want you? Honestly, Rachel, that's like some bad romance novel. You'd be better off not seeing him every day; you could move on, find someone else."

"But even if he doesn't love me, he likes me," Rachel argued. "And besides loving him, I like him too. I enjoy being with him, surely it's better to be friends than have no relationship at all."

Denny looked at Rachel, exasperated. "It sounds to me as if you've already made up your mind. Let's look at the bottom line. Feeling like you do about this guy, knowing that he might only see you as a friend; that he might even fall in love with someone else; can you still do the job? Could you still lay your life on the line for him?"

"Of course," Rachel looked surprised. "I mean, how the protectee feels about you is never a consideration. I'm lucky; some of the agents in the EPD end up with real jerks, having to protect someone they dislike. " She smiled faintly, "actually, I think I'll do a better job now, if anything should happen to him it wouldn't just be a loss for the Bureau, it would be a loss for me personally."

"Well, in that case I say go ahead and wait." Denny shrugged. "Go back on his detail and see if you can figure out how he feels about you. But Rachel, honey," Denny squeezed her hands. "Promise me you'll give yourself a deadline. Don't break your heart over this guy indefinitely. If he can't see what a prize you are, then you need to move on."

Rachel smiled weakly but before she could answer, her cell phone rang. Denny's eyebrows rose at the smile that lit up her face when she answered. He unashamedly eavesdropped on her conversation as soon as he realized it was this Hood guy on the other end. A thoughtful look crossed his face at the way Rachel's voice unconsciously softened as she talked to the man, the way she giggled at whatever he was saying. He brightened when he realized that Rachel was confirming plans for Hood to meet her at the apartment the next day, that they would be going out to breakfast. It looked like he would be getting a chance to meet this guy after all. He would feel better about the situation if he could meet the man, see for himself how he treated Rachel.

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Jacob ended the call with a smile on his face. He felt suddenly content; the nightmare that began with Sofia Lyons trying to take Ray Wynne's wife hostage had finally ended. Tomorrow he and Rachel would be reunited. Even better, they would see each other even earlier than he had any right to expect. Felix had announced on Friday that they should surprise Agent Young by taking her to breakfast before she had a chance to meet with McGruder. He had jokingly said that they needed to wine and dine her before her meeting to insure that she would agree to returning to Hood's detail.

Jacob was relieved when Jack Patterson, his temporary bodyguard, argued that a surprise breakfast was a bad idea. Patterson pointed out that Young might not appreciate them turning up before she was ready to face the day. It saved him from having to explain that there was no way in hell he was going to show up unannounced at Rachel's apartment ever again. To his relief, Felix had immediately seen the point and called to issue the invitation. Jacob realized he was holding his breath until Felix, beaming, announced that Agent Young was looking forward to breakfast.

After nearly two years of almost constant companionship, Jacob had been discomfited to discover that once Rachel was no longer on his detail it was impossible for him to see her without raising eyebrows. He didn't know if it was considered acceptable for him to practically live at the hospital while Rachel was a patient or if his actions weren't noticed in the confusion that reigned at the Bureau after Wynne's arrest. But it soon became clear to him that expressing a desire to see Rachel, to check on her, would give rise to gossip.

He had been called out of town before Rachel was discharged and he had worried about how she was faring. When he returned, he had told his new handler he wanted to swing by the rehab facility to see how Rachel was settling in. He hadn't missed the look of speculation on her face at his request. He also couldn't miss how Rachel's face had quickly assumed her polite, indifferent mask when she realized that he accompanied by someone other than Felix. The visit had been awkward for both of them.

It had been over three months before he saw her again and that was at a sanctioned FBI event. Because she had been shot in the line of duty, Rachel was being awarded the FBI Star. She had been teaching at Quantico by that point and Frank had decided to make the award there. He wanted to emphasize the role Rachel had played in Wynne's downfall. He wanted the new recruits to get the message that just because they were now FBI, it didn't mean the rules no longer applied to them.

It was hard seeing her with both Frank and Ty McGruder by his side. He had to be circumspect, if they suspected his feelings for her she'd never be allowed back on his detail. He had envied Felix who immediately swept her into a hug and kissed her cheek. He had stuffed his hands into his pockets and contented himself with a smile and a nod. Even when they were both back at the Hoover Building, he had to be careful. He never went to her office and he tried not to engineer to many accidental meetings.

Luckily, Rachel seemed pleased when he called. Jacob smiled remembering the trouble he took to make the calls seem casual, merely one friend checking in on another. He had gone so far as to use a random number generator to keep him from calling her daily. The length of the calls increased as time went on; by the time Rachel was back at work they would talk for as long as an hour, chatting about everything and nothing, sharing details of their days, teasing each other. Those calls were the one thing that kept him sane during her absence. Jacob had never told anyone about the calls and he had the feeling Rachel hadn't either.

The call tonight hadn't been necessary. He had pretended he was merely confirming that he hadn't been called out on a case so breakfast was still on. In reality, it had been a few days since he had heard or seen her and he missed her. It was foolish, he would be seeing her the next day, but he couldn't help himself.

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The contentment Jacob had been feeling vanished when Rachel's door was answered by a good-looking Hispanic man wearing a t-shirt and cargo shorts. It was clear, from his damp hair and the way the t-shirt clung to his body, that he was fresh from the shower. The butterflies that had been in Jacob's stomach turned into a ball of lead. Keeping the smile plastered on his face, he winced inwardly. _'Damn it, I should have known, she's been in DC for so long, of course she's found someone.'_ He couldn't believe that in their many phone calls Rachel had neglected to mention she had a new lover.

For his part, Denny was elated that his plan had worked out so well. He had beaten Rachel to the shower ensuring that he would have some time to evaluate this Hood guy.

"Please come in, I'm Denny Herrera, I'm a friend of Rachel's."

Felix looked quickly at Doc, as if expecting him to handle the introductions, when Doc remained silent, he did the honors.

Denny nodded. "Yes, she's told me all about you." He gestured for them to sit. "I'm afraid she's still in the shower. I was a bad guest and not only snagged the first shower this morning, but I took an extra-long one." He lounged back in his chair and smirked. "I figured she owed me since it was her fault I was so hot and sweaty."

Denny was slightly gleeful at the reaction of the three to his remark. The large black guy, Felix, looked slightly censorious, the other one, Patterson, looked amused. Hood, however, sat with a frozen smile on his face. Denny was familiar with that look. It was the same one the Cardinal Archbishop wore when he was trying not to react to Father Herrera's latest outrageous statement. Denny nodded to himself, the guy wasn't as indifferent to her as Rachel seemed to think. He decided to put Hood out of his misery.

"Yeah, can you believe it? She insisted I run with her this morning. Five miles in this heat and humidity? I thought I was going to die." He was interested that Hood, while relaxing slightly still regarded him warily. They heard the water in the shower turn off. Denny went over and stuck his head around the bedroom door. "Rachel, honey, your friends are here."

He grinned at the men as he sat back down. "Twenty bucks says she's out here in ten minutes, ready or not. She'll be afraid I'll tell you stories of her misspent youth."

"You've know each other a long time?" Felix asked politely.

"Umm, we're very old, very good friends. I was transferred to the area and she's been letting me crash here while I get my bearings."

"Oh, what line of work are you in?" Jacob asked.

"I'm what you could call a reclamation specialist," Denny replied airily. "I work for a large, international outfit. They send me in when someplace isn't performing up to standard. "

Before anyone could reply, Rachel rushed into the room. Her hair was still wet, tucked behind her ears, and her shirt was mis-buttoned. "Uh, hi guys," she said, "Ready for breakfast?"

Denny burst out laughing. "Damn, no one took my bet." He stood up and took Rachel by the shoulders, gently turning her around. "Go back and get ready properly, don't worry, I won't give away any of your secrets."

Rachel opened her mouth, but her reply to Denny was interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone. Rachel's eyes flew to Hood; it was the ringtone he had set up for the Director. Excusing himself Jacob moved aside to take his call. What he heard obviously disturbed him, the others could see from the frown on his face.

"Yes, we'll leave immediately. Email me the files." Jacob ended the call and looked at Rachel apologetically. "I'm afraid breakfast is off, I've been called out…" Rachel's phone rang before he could finish his sentence.

"Young here." Rachel answered her phone crisply; the display indicated it was McGruder on the other end. A smile spread over her face. "Mine sir. Yes, I'll tell him. Thank you sir."

"That was McGruder; he said three seats to Lincoln were being held for you, he wanted to know whose name should go on the third ticket." Satisfaction shone on her face, "I told him mine, of course." She turned to Patterson. "He wants you to report to his office, he has your next assignment lined up."

Patterson grunted an acknowledgment and left after wishing Jacob and Felix well. Rachel looked down at her shirt and grimaced. "Give me a minute to finish dressing properly and get my bag together." She looked at Felix with an arched eyebrow.

Felix grinned. "Yes, ma'am. I've got a bag in my car. We just need to swing by Doc's place to grab his bag and we'll be ready to go."

Denny looked disturbed; he knew that Rachel was going back to her protective duties today but he hadn't realized that she might be exposed to danger so quickly. "Excuse me, Dr. Hood, can I ask what's going on?"

Jacob looked at the man thoughtfully, tilting his head slightly to one side. While many of the cases he worked on ended up being classified, this one was sure to make the news. He shrugged mentally; he could at least tell this friend of Rachel's what was surely going to be public knowledge within twenty-four hours.

"I've, well, we've been called to Nebraska. Three members of a high school football team died during practice. They first thought it was dehydration, then cardiac arrest. It seems there's some doubt as to cause of death."

Denny paled. "Children dying? That's awful. Do you think it could be dangerous? I mean, could it be dangerous for you and Rachel?"

Jacob shrugged. "It's hard to say. A lot depends on what we dig up, if someone is responsible for these deaths, they may…" he trailed off as Rachel entered the room.

"Look Denny, I have to go. Lock up when you leave, I'll get the key back from you later." She turned to Hood and Felix. "Let's go."

"Wait a second," Denny objected. To Jacob's surprise he began rummaging in a duffle bag that was behind the sofa. He was further mystified when Denny absently handed him a small glass vial; his eyes widened in shock when he realized the length of cloth Denny had in his hands was a stole and the man was reverently pressing it to his lips.

"Oh, Christ," Rachel groaned, "Denny, you aren't seriously…"

Denny looked at Rachel sternly as he donned the stole. "Quit blaspheming. "

Facing Rachel, he placed his hands on her shoulders. "Almighty God, the boundless source of all good things, we humbly ask that you pour out your blessings on your daughter Rachel. May she be blessed by you with health of soul and body, and the grace of a holy life. May she and her companions, with the help of your merciful love, find the answers they seek." Taking the vial from Jacob, he poured a small amount of oil into his palm. Dipping his thumb into the oil, he quickly made a sign of the cross on Rachel's forehead as he finished his blessing, "This we ask though Christ our Lord, Amen."

He shook her lightly as he finished the blessing. "And your rolling your eyes doesn't negate my prayer." He kissed her on the forehead. "Go with God, and keep safe."

Smiling, Rachel hugged him goodbye. They left him leaning against the open apartment door. He waited until the elevator doors opened, revealing quite a few of Rachel's neighbors. "Hey Rachel," he called out. She held the elevator doors and looked back at him. "Come to lunch next Sunday if you're in town. But bring your friends, my new parishioners might be scandalized if they find out I'm entertaining sexy blondes alone in the rectory."

Rachel face was bright red as the elevator doors closed. She glared at Felix, who like her neighbors, was smothering a laugh. She snuck a quick glance at Hood and was relieved to see that he had chosen to ignore Denny's rather lame joke.

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Rachel sat back with a sigh of contentment. She thought she should feel guilty for being so happy. After all, she was on this plane because three teen-aged boys had died. But she couldn't help but smile; she was finally back to where she had wanted to be for months. She was at Jacob Hood's side. She looked over at Hood fondly. He was deep into the files he had been emailed, oblivious to her presence. She found that oddly endearing. She looked across the aisle to where Felix was sitting; he was frowning at his computer screen.

"What's the problem Felix?"

The big man shrugged. "I don't know. I've never worked on a case that involved kids before." He looked at her sideways. "I guess this is pretty old hat to you."

Images of the children she and Hood had encountered flashed through her mind. From villains like Stephen Brown to victims like those babies in Oregon. No matter how peripherally involved they were, cases involving kids of any age were tough.

"It's never easy Felix. We've dealt with cases like this before, with kids dying, being hurt; but you never get used to it." She looked at him somberly. "Frankly, I don't think you should _ever_ get used to it." She shot a glance at her seatmate and, reassured he was firmly on Planet Hood, she leaned a bit into the aisle to mummer to Felix, "I just hope it doesn't turn out these kids did this to themselves." Her eyes flicked in Hood's direction. "I don't think he'd take it that well."

Felix pursed his lips in thought. He knew what Agent Young was talking about. The Doc did sometimes seem to get tied up in knots about what was happening to the victims. "What do you mean, doing this to themselves?"

"I hate to even think it, but we're dealing with high school athletes here. They wouldn't be the first or the last kids to do something stupid to give themselves an edge." Rachel thought back, "we dealt with something like this before you joined the team. I wonder…"

"I doubt that we'll be dealing with anything like that," Hood's voice interrupted her. Rachel's breath caught in her throat as he leaned over to join in the conversation, his shoulder pressing into hers. She worked hard to keep her breathing even; it wouldn't do for Hood to suspect how his nearness affected her.

"Why not Doc?" Felix was always interested in hearing about the work the Doc and Agent Young had done before his arrival.

"In that case we were dealing with a fairly sophisticated case of gene-doping." At Felix's look of confusion he elaborated. "A student developed a virus that added a gene to make muscles produce nitrous oxide. It would have given anyone who was injected a tremendous competitive advantage."

"Why don't you think something like that's going on here?" Felix asked.

Jacob smiled briefly. "Maybe this is my prejudices showing, but that case involved students at a large research university. According to what I've been sent, we're heading to North Platte, Nebraska. They have a population of a little over 25,000 and they're not close to any major metropolitan area. I can't believe that they would have access to drugs of that kind."

Rachel, having gotten her breathing under control, figured it was safe to join in the conversation. "I don't know that I'd call them prejudices, but your attitude is a bit, um, naïve?" She grinned at Hood's raised eyebrows. "Either you forgetting or you don't realize that North Platte is on Interstate 80, drug dealers have easy access to the area."

At Jacob's look of skepticism, Felix nodded his head vigorously. "Oh yeah, Doc, it's true. The feds have targeted I-80 as a major drug pipeline in the U.S."

Jacob shook his head, still not convinced. "We'd be seeing a different profile of the victims if these cases were merely drug related. I have to think that the fact that all three victims were high school athletes is more than a coincidence. And even so, I have a hard time believing your run of the mill drug dealer would be trafficking in drugs that would enhance athletic performance."

"I dunno Doc; maybe these kids got ahold of a bad batch of steroids?"

"That would have shown up on the tox screens. No, if we're being called in, it has to be something more complicated than that."

Felix grunted in agreement. "Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough." Closing his computer, he pulled his iPod out of his carryon and sat back to relax for the remainder of the flight.

Jacob pulled down Rachel's tray table and slid his computer over to her. "Here, I'd like you to take a look at the files. See if anything suggests itself to you." Jacob gave a sigh of pleasure as Rachel pulled out her glasses and began reviewing the information on the screen. It felt good to have someone to share in the work. Felix, by his own admission, wasn't big on the "science thing", and while he had tried, he had never shown the aptitude Rachel did. She often saw things, made connections between people and events, which he overlooked. Jacob had missed Rachel as partner as much as he had missed her personally. They spent the remainder of the flight speculating on what they might be facing in Nebraska.


	2. Chapter 2

Both Jacob and Rachel expressed surprise when Felix led them to the car rental desks in the Lincoln airport. Felix had made good use of the wi-fi connection on the plane. He had discovered this was the most efficient mode of transportation. There were only two flights a day to North Platte and they had missed both of them. He had gone ahead and reserved a car. Now, they would be on site in three hours.

Felix sighed as Rachel held out her hand for the keys to the SUV he had reserved for them. The only thing he had enjoyed about the last few months was his promotion to driver. Patterson had insisted that he and Doc sit in the back seat. The man had claimed it was a security precaution; he needed to be alert for threats coming from any direction. Felix had quickly figured out the real reason; Patterson enjoyed being chauffeured around.

Being in the back seat didn't hamper his participation in the conversation, especially since the main topic was the logistics of their operation. Felix had arranged to alert the local LEOs to their impending arrival when they were about 50 miles away. He reported the sheriff wanted to meet them at the county hospital. They agreed that while Jacob and Rachel met with him and the medical personnel, Felix would rent a second car. He would scout out the town and make tentative arrangements for Doc and Agent Young to interview some of the people involved. They would meet up at the hotel Felix had found for them in a few hours to compare notes.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rachel and Hood were met at the entrance to the hospital by Sheriff Dave Flood. As they slowly made their way through the corridors, Flood explained why he had called in the FBI. He and the Lincoln County coroner, Dr. James Pounder, were stumped. The three boys who had died were in excellent physical condition. Flood explained that when the first boy died, during football practice, the doctor had assumed either dehydration or an undetected heart ailment. It quickly became obvious that was not the case; even before the autopsy could be scheduled, the two other boys had died. Autopsies of each showed that while all three had suffered heart attacks, their hearts, along with the rest of their organs, showed no sign of any disease.

The doctor had then assumed that the heart problems were caused by illegal drug use. But the tox screens were clean; none of the boys had been taking as much as an aspirin. Jacob raised his eyebrows at this piece of news.

"What about steroids? I'm assuming Dr. Pounder tested for them. After all, these are football players we're talking about."

Flood scowled at the question. "Of course he checked for steroids. They were clean for them to. But these guys were good players. It wouldn't have made sense for any of them to be doing something like that."

Before Jacob could comment on Flood's assumptions they arrived at the hospital's small lab which was empty. Jacob looked around appraisingly, his lips pursed. To say the lab was not state of the art was an understatement. He couldn't see how Pounder could do his job in such a poorly equipped lab.

"God-damn it." Flood exploded when they saw the lab was empty. "I told that little prick we were on our way not ten minutes ago. He knew he was supposed to meet us here."

Rachel's eyebrow rose at Flood's outburst. "Is there something we need to know here?"

"Pounder's new. The county decided about a year ago to upgrade the coroner's job, get a doctor. It's a joint position, pathologist here and county coroner. He didn't take it good when I told him I was calling in the feds. Told me I was over-stepping my authority." Flood snorted. "Which is a load of shit. He's had two weeks to tell me how those boys died and he still can't rule out foul play. I was well within my rights as county sheriff to call you in."

Jacob shrugged. "You don't have to justify yourself to us. From what I've seen in the files you sent the Bureau, this is precisely the kind of thing I should be called in on."

"Yeah, well, I'd better go find him." Flood stomped out of the lab.

Jacob and Rachel looked at each other in dismay. They didn't need the assistance of the locals, their investigation would run along parallel but independent lines, but it didn't help when the locals resented their presence. Shaking his head in disgust, Jacob roamed around the lab, examining the equipment. He turned to Rachel with a grimace.

"I'm not surprised this Dr. Pounder couldn't come up with any answers. This lab is a disgrace; most of the equipment is outdated."

"I don't know Hood," Rachel teased. "Sounds like your prejudices are kicking in again."

"It's not just that the lab isn't state of the art, but this equipment isn't as sensitive, as accurate as the stuff on the market these days."

"Umm, now you sound like boys and their toys."

Jacob's lips twitched. It felt good to be teased again. "I'm serious Rachel. This lab looks like the hospital set up a pathology department ages ago and then forgot about it. You heard Flood, Dr. Pounder is new here. I'm willing to bet he's the first pathologist they've had on staff for years."

Rachel was puzzled. "Wait, that can't be right. I mean, if they haven't had a pathologist, who's been doing their autopsies?"

"You're too used to the criminal side of things. " Jacob shrugged. "These days, unless the family or the doctor insists on an autopsy, one isn't done."

"I thought you had to have an autopsy in cases of unexpected death?" Rachel objected.

"No, you have to have one in cases of _unexplained_ death, not merely unexpected death." At Rachel's look of confusion, Jacob tilted his head, thinking. "It's like this, if you're admitted to the hospital for a tonsillectomy and you die as a result of the operation, your death is unexpected. People don't usually die from simple operations like those, but they do, for a variety of reasons. "

"Yeah," Rachel interrupted. "Like because when he was supposed to take out my tonsils, the doctor cut a vein in my throat. If they don't do an autopsy, they won't find out the doctor screwed up."

"Umhm, which is why the hospital and the doctors won't order one. They don't want to worry about opening themselves up to liability. And since the insurance companies won't pay for them, the patient's survivors generally don't ask for them either."

Rachel looked outraged. "So these doctors and hospitals cover up the fact they're screwing up by claiming the deaths aren't _unexpected_?"

"It's not quite that bad. In reality what with the advances in medical technology, medical imaging, most doctors feel comfortable enough about their diagnosis without ordering one. Only 5% of the non-criminal deaths in this country rate an autopsy these days and those are mostly done at teaching hospitals. "

Jacob waved a hand around the lab. "For the most part, pathologists in hospitals like this one are confirming diagnosis by running blood or urine tests, examining tissues samples. Now this lab may be more than adequate for work like that, but the more sensitive tests, no way."

Before Rachel could respond, the door opened and a young man in a white coat entered the lab. He looked at them sourly. "You must be the people from the FBI."

Jacob moved forward with his hand extended. "Yes, I'm Jacob Hood; I'm a scientist with the FBI. This is Special Agent Young, we've…." Jacob's eyes opened a bit wide as the young man not only ignored his outstretched hand but folded his arms across his chest.

"Yes, I'm aware of who you are Mr. Hood. I'm _Dr._ Pounder, the pathologist for this hospital and the coroner for Lincoln County."

"That's **Dr**. Hood," Rachel growled.

Jacob shot her a look of amusement. He turned to the young man and said mildly. "No, I'm not a medical doctor, but I believe that Sheriff Flood…"

"Flood had no right to go over my head and send for you." Pounder snapped.

Flood entered the room at that moment. "Look, I'm damned sick and tired of you and your attitude. I did not go over your head. I'm in charge of this investigation not you. It's been two weeks and you still can't tell me if a crime has been committed or not. I was perfectly within my rights to call in Dr. Hood here."

"Think of it as having a specialist called in to give a second opinion. It's not that anyone doubts your competence, but, after all, I've had more experience with the unusual than most." Jacob offered.

"Exactly!" Flood exclaimed. "He's my second opinion. So just get him what he needs and be done with it."

"If you could let me have some blood and tissue samples," Jacob said, "I'll send them out for further testing." He looked around the lab. "After all..."

Rachel had already pulled out her cell phone. Knowing Hood's opinion of the lab, she could easily anticipate his next request. Moving away from the men she quietly got in touch with the Omaha field office. Within minutes she was ending the call, a satisfied look on her face. She interrupted Hood.

"The Omaha office is arranging for a courier service to pick up the samples. They'll be here within the hour, have the material to the lab in Omaha in two. I've told the lab boys there to make your stuff their top priority." She turned to Pounder with a smirk on her face. "Now, could you get what _Dr_. Hood needs together for shipment?"

Pounder looked at them all defiantly. "There's nothing to ship. I used up all the blood and tissue samples in my own tests."

"Well, yes, of course," Jacob said. "We need to go down to the morgue to get new ones."

"The bodies aren't there."

Flood hit the roof. "What the hell do you mean they're not there? God damn it. What did you do?"

Pounder began to look uneasy. "I released the bodies this morning. The families were begging me to let them have their sons. I decided…"

Flood cut him off shortly. "You had no right to do that. You knew damn well that I'd asked the feds for help and that Dr. Hood was expected today. How dare you screw up my investigation this way?"

"That's it." Rachel announced. "I'm declaring this a case of suspected bio-terrorism and placing you under arrest for impeding the investigation." She pulled her cuffs off the back of her belt and advanced on Pounder.

Pounder looked aghast. "Bio-terrorism?"

Rachel looked at the man coolly. "Not only is this town on I-80, U.S. 83 runs right through it, a direct route from Canada to Mexico. For all we know, terrorists might be using this place as a testing ground for some new kind of biological weapon."

"You gonna have his ass thrown into Gitmo?" Flood asked. He looked pleased at the turn of events.

Jacob rolled his eyes and shook his head. At the same time, he couldn't keep the grin off his face. _'That's my girl, back on the job less than twelve hours and already in pit bull mode.'_ He loudly cleared his throat. "Now let's not over-react here. The bodies were only released to the families this morning. We can go to the funeral home and at least get tissue samples."

"Are you sure? Will the tissue samples be enough?" Rachel asked.

Jacob made a moue of distaste. "It won't be perfect; the samples will have been contaminated with formaldehyde. But I, or rather the lab techs in Omaha, can make allowances for that." He looked at her bleakly. "It's better than nothing."

Rachel's heart twisted at the look on Hood's face. She kew how much he was dreading having to approache the parents of the dead boys. Of having to intrude on their grief. It would almost be worth it, arresting Pounder for the distress he was causing Hood. She sighed inwardly; she knew she couldn't protect him from situations like this one. His soft heart and empathetic nature pretty much guaranteed that.

Rachel nodded her head in understanding. "Ok, let's go then." She turned to Pounder. "You too."

"Am I under arrest?"

"I wish. No, if we have to ask grieving parents for permission to cut up their children some more, you should be the one to do it."

Pounder thought about protesting but the implacable looks on the faces of both Rachel and Flood quickly changed his mind. He and the sheriff led the way into town and the four pulled up in front to the funeral home. They had barely set foot inside when they were intercepted by the funeral director, Peggy Lamb.

The sheriff made the introductions and quietly explained what they needed. The woman looked over at Pounder, a bland expression on her face. She titled her head, indicating that they should join her in her office. She murmured that she would prefer to speak to them privately, where they couldn't be overheard.

What she had to say gratified Jacob. He had steeled himself for the ordeal of dealing with the grieving parents. Now he wouldn't have to do that, at least not yet. It turned out that Lamb was the former coroner for Lincoln County and had resented it when the county officials had decided they needed a doctor in that position. She had been surprised when the families told her that Pounder had released the bodies; she had heard the gossip that Flood had called in the feds. As a precaution, she had taken blood and tissue samples from all three corpses before embalming them.

Before Rachel could relax, she had a question for Lamb. "Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful you had the foresight to get the samples but will any evidence from them be admissible?"

Lamb smiled grimly. "Don't worry about that. I know all about the chain of evidence." She shot Pounder a dirty look. "I may not be a doctor but I know a lot more about the legal requirements for evidence than some people." Pounder had the grace to look abashed.

When Jacob explained that he was having the samples sent by courier to Omaha for testing Lamb looked pleased. It meant Pounder was not going to be part of the continuing investigation. She promised to have the samples packed appropriately for travel and to hand them over to the courier personally. After thanking her profusely they left.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jacob and Rachel decided it was time to rendezvous with Felix at the hotel. The big man was waiting for them in the lobby.

"I got the scoop on the situation with our three vics; I can fill you in as soon as you're ready."

Jacob and Rachel both smiled a bit at this. It never ceased to amaze either of them at how good Felix was at worming information out of people. Rachel requested her and Hood's key folders as they all entered the elevator. To her surprise, Felix only handed her one folder. She and Jacob spoke simultaneously.

"Where's Hood's key?"

"Felix, I thought we were through with this nonsense?"

Rachel looked at Hood, puzzled. "What nonsense? What are you talking about?"

Felix hastily intervened before Doc could answer. "Both of your keys are in the one folder; the hotel didn't have any connecting rooms available, so I got you a two bedroom suite."

Jacob looked mollified and Rachel nodded approvingly. "Good idea, it'll be nice to have the extra room to set up in." Part of her was relieved to hear they would have a neutral area in which to work. She wasn't sure she was ready for the intimacy she and Hood shared while in the field, working and eating in what was in essentially each other's bedroom. Telling Felix to join them as soon as he dumped his stuff in his room, Rachel and Hood proceeded down the hall to their suite.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Felix smiled smugly to himself as he juggled the three backpacks. The victims had all collapsed during the school day. In the confusion caused by the police and medics, the backpacks had been left behind. The principal had taken custody of them, intending to return them to the boys' parents. Felix hoped that Doc and Agent Young would be impressed that he had managed to talk the principal into giving them to him. Unable to manage the backpacks and the door key, Felix began kicking on the door to the suite. After a few seconds, Agent Young answered the door with a frown on her face.

"Felix, what the hell? Why didn't you our doors keyed the same?" Rachel blinked as she registered Felix's full arms. "What's all this?"

"Backpacks." Felix answered proudly. "They got left behind when our vics got transported to the hospital. I got the principal to turn them over to me. I told him they might be evidence in our case."

"Good call Felix," Jacob said. "If these three were like other students I've had, they carry everything important to them in those backpacks."

He stood thoughtfully for a minute. "What we should do is dump them out and first see what we can discover about our three boys individually. Then, let's group similar objects together; see what they had in common."

Felix and Rachel nodded in agreement. Sitting on the floor they each took a backpack and dumped it in front of themselves. They quickly sorted through the books, papers, and other objects in the packs.

"Bingo!" Rachel sang out as she surveyed the small mountains of stuff. She leaned over and plucked cell phones from the piles in front of Felix and Jacob. "I've got their cell phones. I'll go through their call logs and their texts. See if they have any contacts in common."

While Rachel sat at the desk going over the phones, Jacob and Felix continued to categorize the boys' possessions from their packs. They began to piece together what their days had been like. Two of the boys had been sophomores and had been in three classes together, as evidenced by their textbooks. The other boy had been a senior, there were only two points of contact he had with the others during the school day. In addition to the football team, the three boys had shared a lunch period.

"I dunno Doc, do you think that's important?" Felix asked. "Maybe it was something they ate?"

"I don't think so Felix. If it was in the food more than three students would have been affected."

"Not if it was deliberate," Felix argued. "Maybe someone had it in for those three."

"They would have had to use something pretty untraceable in that case. Don't forget the tox screens were clean."

"Yeah, but didn't you tell me once that the tox screen miss stuff? That you have to know what you're testing for since you can't test for everything?"

Jacob smiled; Rachel had told Felix that many months ago. "I suppose you're right, tomorrow we'll ask the principal if we can check out the school cafeteria."

"No need Doc, I've already talked to him. We're all set to talk to whoever we want. He's even agreed to make an office available to us."

Rachel looked up from the phones. "I'm impressed, that's good work Felix."

"Umm, I guess we'll start with the football coach, after all, that's the biggest commonality we have." Jacob shrugged. "After that, I'm not sure how we should proceed."

Rachel held up the paper she had been scribbling on. "I've got a couple of good leads here, someone they all had in common, a kid named Zach M. Plus we should talk to," she glanced at the paper, "Brittney. She seems to have been Josh's girlfriend."

At Hood and Felix's puzzled looks, she explained, "Josh was the senior. They were texting each other about whether or not Josh was going to do _it_. Sounds like she knows something."

Over the next few hours the threesome organized what they knew about the case. Besides arranging for a whiteboard and several stacks of Post-it notes to be delivered to the suite, Felix had also provided them with a detailed map of the area. Working from the files and the preliminary information Felix had collected from various individuals they attempted to see what, outside of school, the three boys had in common. The picture they assembled was bleak. Aside from the football team, a lunch hour, and one friend, the boys had nothing in common. Nothing to suggest where or how they had come into contact with whatever had killed them.

Jacob wearily rubbed his hands over his face. "It had to have been something they ate or drank. Nothing else makes any sense."

"What about something in the air?" Felix offered. "Like that pheromones case with the models? Maybe it was something they smelled?"

"No," Jacob shook his head. "Again, like the food in the cafeteria, I would have expected more people to be affected." He cocked his head as Rachel opened her mouth; he guessed what she was going to say. "Same thing with something being absorbed into their skin. We've had three victims and nothing since then. If we were dealing with something in the environment we would have had more victims by now. No," he stood and stretched, "I have a feeling that whatever this is, it wasn't random."

"No, and the best place to start is with Brittney," Rachel said. "From the sound of those texts she definitely knows something."

"I know where we should start now," Felix announced. He grinned at the looks Doc and Agent Young gave him. "Dinner. I don't know about you two, but I'm starved." He pursed his lips disapprovingly. "That drive-through fast food was a long time ago."

He shook his head as Agent Young began to look around the room. "Nuh-uh. This place doesn't run to room service." He cocked his head. "But there is a diner right down the street, and" he checked his watch, "by this time it will be filled with teen-agers." He smiled at the look of surprise this statement caused. "I talked to the kid at the desk when I checked us in. According to him, this diner is the main hang-out of the high school crowd. I figure we could pick up some info along with our meal."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

As Felix predicted, the diner was filled with teenagers. When the threesome walked in there was a pause in the chatter. After a moment they kids resumed talking, but in lower voices. Felix, Jacob, and Rachel exchanged glances. Shrugging in disappointment, they found an empty booth at the back of the diner. They wondered if the curious glances coming their way would result in anyone being brave enough to approach them.

After a few minutes, the only one to approach them was a young waitress with a nametag identifying her as Trisha. She shyly asked if she could help them.

Felix gave her his best smile. "Well, I sure hope so Trisha. I'm Agent Lee and this is Dr. Hood and Agent Young. We're here to find out what happened to those three football players. Aside from bringing us something to eat, we were hoping you might know something about what happened."

"Help you? I don't know how I could do that."

"Well, first off," Rachel asked, "did you know any of the three boys? Is there anything special we should know about them?" She smiled faintly, remembering her own high school years. "Anything they were trying to keep away from the ears of any of the teachers, other adults?"

"Oh, I knew Josh; we're, like, both seniors. I mean, Josh _was_ a senior, but we, well, we weren't like friends or anything." Trisha blushed. "I mean, he was on the football team and he was dating Brittney, she's, like, a cheerleader."

Jacob shook his head slightly; it seemed that not much had changed in all the years since he'd been in high school. The football players were still at the top of the pecking order and they still dated the cheerleaders. "Did you know the other two boys?"

"Oh yeah, I mean, it's, like, a small school. You kind of know everyone. I didn't know, know them though. But I knew who they were."

"I know all about small schools," Felix put in. "The high school I went to? Maybe three hundred students, tops. You couldn't help but know everybody's business." He smiled at Trisha winningly. "I'll bet you know all the gossip about those three."

Trisha looked uncomfortable. "I don't know anything, really. I mean, know, know, stuff." She looked around, the other teenagers in the diner seemed to be absorbed in their own conversations. "But I do know that Matt and Tim would do anything Josh told them to. They, like, idolized him."

With that Trisha took their orders and thankfully escaped from their table. She left behind a thoughtful silence.

"Idolized him, did they," Jacob said softly. He turned to Rachel who was sitting at his side. "In what order did those boys die?"

Rachel pulled out her cell phone and quickly scrolled through her emails. She found the correct one and opened the attached file. Her eyebrows rose as she silently read it. "Interesting. It seemed that Matt Schuler collapsed at football practice and was pronounced DOA when the paramedics got him to the hospital. The next day, first Tim Collins and then Josh Erickson collapsed and died as well."

Jacob's eyebrows also rose. "So both of the younger boys were affected first, interesting."

"What are you thinking Doc? That this Josh kid gave them something?"

Jacob nodded slowly. "It sounds as if the older boy may have been using the younger ones as guinea pigs, trying out something on them before taking it himself."

"That would make sense," Rachel mused. "It would explain the _it_ Brittney was asking about. Apparently Josh gave _it_ to the others before he tried it out himself." She looked angry. "What a little shit."

Trisha retuned with a full tray. As she passed their plates, Rachel had another question for her.

"Do you know who Zach M is? We think he was a friend of the boys who died."

"Zach? The only Zach M in school is Zach Moore, but he wasn't friends with any of them." She looked around the diner and grimaced. "Look, I really can't talk, answer your questions. I mean, the other kids, they'll, like…" she trailed off uncertainly.

Jacob nodded understandingly. "We understand, but thank you. What you've told us already is a big help."

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Walking back to the hotel, they planned out the next day. Rachel and Jacob would head to the school; Jacob thought he and Rachel should talk to the football coach first thing. Rachel disagreed, she thought the girlfriend should be the first one questioned; she was obviously hiding something. She also thought they should talk to the boy Zach. If Tricia was right and he wasn't a friend, Rachel found it strange that all three boys would have his number stored in their contact lists. Felix would pay a visit to the police station and see what he could pick up from the deputies.

As they reached the door of the suite, Felix yawned and wished Doc and Agent Young a goodnight. Rachel and Jacob entered their suite, Jacob flipping the security bolt and putting up the chain as soon as Rachel announced the suite was clear. An awkward silence fell between them. They had lost the habit of easy intimacy; instead they were both acutely aware of the fact that they would be sharing this suite.

"Uh, I'm not that sleepy," Jacob said. "I think I'll review the files again before I turn in. But you should feel free to, um, go to bed."

Rachel rolled her eyes. Like he hadn't reviewed those files a million times by now. She was willing to bet he had them practically memorized. "No, I'm fine. I think I'll start on the paperwork."

Jacob gave a small huff of irritation. It had been a long day and Rachel must be tired. They were in a suite for Christ's sake, she could easily go to bed, it wasn't as if she had to escort him anywhere. He had thought they were beyond this, beyond Rachel feeling as if she had to keep tabs on him every hour of the day and night when they were in the field.

"Rachel," he said softly. "I'm not going anywhere. There's no one I want to see, there's nothing I need to look at. We're settled in here for the night. You can go to bed." He hesitated, "you must be tired and your leg must be aching after those long plane and car trips."

Rachel stiffened at his words. _'Damn it, he thinks I can't do the job.'_ "I'm fine, my leg is fine, and I'm not at all tired." She looked at him icily. "And I do not need you to play nurse-maid for me." She turned her attention to her computer, missing the stricken look on his face.

"On second thought, I think I will turn in." Jacob said stiffly.

Rachel looked up in surprise, but before she could say anything, Hood disappeared into his bedroom. Her shoulders slumped. _'Damn it, why did I have to be so touchy? Shit, I want him to be concerned, to care about me. I should have let him.'_ But part of her whispered that she didn't want him to care for her like that; she didn't want him to see her as weak, as a victim. She wanted him to see her as a woman.

Grimacing at the computer screen she decided she might as well go to bed also. There was nothing she had to do this evening; the reports could wait. Hood was right, she was pretty drained from her first day back in the field. A quick shower and a few hours of sleep were just what she needed. She smiled to herself and amended that thought; _'Actually, it's what the Doctor ordered.'_

_. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ._

Closing his bedroom door Jacob leaned back and berated himself for his thoughtlessness. _'Damn it, I should have known be_tt_er. I should have known she'd resent my tryi_ng _to look after her.'_

Still leaning against the door, Jacob heard the faint sound of a door closing. He carefully eased his own door open. The common room of the suite was empty, a lamp left burning low gave off a soft glow. Cautiously, he stole across the room to stand outside Rachel's closed bedroom door. He could hear her moving around, preparing for bed. With a small smile he returned to his room. He would have to remember how proud Rachel was; how she hated to reveal any weakness. If he wanted her to do something, he'd have to make it seem as if he was the one asking for a favor.

Stretching out on his bed Jacob began reviewing files, looking to see if there were any connections he had missed. He was startled, when a few minutes later, there was a knock on his door. He wondered what Rachel could want. He opened the door to find her standing there in a long-sleeved t-shirt and flannel sleep pants. Her hair was damp from her shower and her face was scrubbed clean. Jacob felt his stomach clench, he thought she looked beautiful.

"Is something wrong?"

Rachel cleared her throat. "Uh, no. It's just I'm turning in now, and I thought, well." She took a deep breath. "I need you to keep your door ajar. Like we used to. You know I sleep easier when I can keep an ear out for you."

"Of course," Jacob agreed. His lips twitched. "I'm afraid I rather got out of the habit the last few months."

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Patterson didn't mind the possibility of having to kick in your door?"

The amusement fled from Jacob's face. "I think Agent Patterson would have enjoyed kicking in my door." Jacob reached out and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, lightly cupped her cheek. "Goodnight Rachel, sleep well."

Rachel stiffened at the touch of Hood's hand on her face. She involuntarily pulled her head back; it took every ounce of her training not to lean into his touch, to not turn her head to press a kiss onto the palm of his hand. "Ah yeah, goodnight Hood."

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It took a while before either of them could fall asleep. Each of them wondering about what had just happened. Each of them wondering what it meant.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning Jacob and Rachel made their way to the high school. Carefully following the signs, they arrived at the school office. They hoped that the principal would make good on the promises he had made to Felix, promises to cooperate in the investigation. They had no sooner presented themselves at the desk when an older woman came bustling up to them.

"Oh, you must be Dr. Hood and Agent Young. I've been expecting you." The woman craned her neck to look around them. "But where's Felix?"

Jacob and Rachel looked at each other, surprised. Rachel began cautiously, "Um, Agent Lee is following up some other leads right now, Mrs.…."

"Zimmerman, I'm Anna Zimmerman, the school secretary." She blushed a bit. "It's just, well, Felix did say he'd see me today and I baked him some cookies. He's such a nice young man." She beamed, "did you know that his mother was a school secretary?"

Rachel quickly elbowed Hood who turned what was a laugh into a cough. "Yes, I believe he has mentioned that Mrs. Zimmerman. Would it be possible for us to see the principal? I believe Felix has alerted him to our needs."

"No need for that, honey. I've already got a room set up for you to use. Mrs. Swanson, our school psychologist, is out today so you can use her office. You just tell me who you want to talk to and I'll have them report there."

"Are you sure about this?" Rachel asked doubtfully. "Shouldn't we check in…?"

"It'll be fine, don't you worry. " The woman laughed, "Mr. Fletcher might be the principal, but I make most of the decisions in this office. Now, you just tell me who you need and I'll have Patricia show you to the office."

Jacob and Rachel were surprised to see that Patricia was Tricia, their waitress from the diner. "If you're ready, I can take you to Ms. Swanson's office."

"Well, we'd like to interview two students, a girl named Brittney, we believe she was Josh Erickson's girlfriend, and a Zach Moore." Rachel flipped her notebook closed. "In that order if possible."

"I'm afraid not," Mrs. Zimmerman sniffed. "Britney Hansen doesn't deign to honor us with her presence until second period."

"She's got a study hall first period," Tricia offered quietly. "Senior privilege says you can, like, show up second period then."

Rachel's mouth twisted in irritation. She had a hunch Brittney was holding back essential information and she was disappointed in not being able to question her immediately. "Ok, how about the Moore boy?"

"Oh, Zach doesn't have any study halls. He, like, considers them a waste of time. He has, you know, a full schedule." Tricia piped up.

"Fine, we'll start with him."

Mrs. Zimmerman walked over to the public address system. "Attention, please. Will Zachery Moore please report to Mrs. Swanson's office immediately. Again, Zachary Moore to Mrs. Swanson's office." She winked at them, "This way it will take a few minutes for the word to get out on the grapevine that he's actually talking to you."

Jacob and Rachel smiled their thanks and followed Tricia out the door. They had just reached the psychologist's office when a tall boy, wearing horn-rim glasses approached them.

"I'm Zach Moore, you wanted to see me?"

Opening the office door, Rachel indicated that Jacob should enter. Pulling Zach in with her, she shut the door firmly. Jacob wandered around the room, examining the file cabinets lining the walls, the pictures that hung above them. He was content to let Rachel handle the preliminary questioning. She circled the desk and gestured for Zach to take the seat across from her. She stared at Zach for a few minutes before beginning her interrogation.

"Do you know why we want to talk to you today?"

"Uh, let me guess? Does it have anything to do with those assholes that died?" Zach asked sarcastically. "I'm not an idiot, you know, everyone in town knows you're here because of them."

"Assholes, huh? Sounds like you had problems with the dead boys."

Zach shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Look, maybe I shouldn't have called them that. But all that nil nisi bonum stuff? It's a lot of crap. They were jerks and their being dead doesn't change that."

"So," Rachel continued softly, "they were jerks. Doesn't sound as if you liked them, were friendly with them."

"Are you kidding? They wouldn't even acknowledge my existence, unless they wanted to give me some shit. They were just like the rest of the football players, thought they were god's gift to the universe."

"Not friends at all then? No contact whatever?"

"I just told you, no."

Rachel pounced. "Then would you care to explain why all three of those boys had your number stored on their cells? If you weren't friends, why were they calling you? You their supplier? Got them some fancy designer drugs that ended up killing them?"

"Oh my god, no." Zach paled. "A drug dealer, me. God no, why would you think that?"

Rachel shrugged. "Aside from the football team, you're the only person all three boys had in common. If you're not friends, if you claim they'd never want to be friends, what other reason is there for them to seek you out? What use were you to them?"

"I'm not a drug dealer." He appealed to Jacob. "You understand, don't you? I'm a senior, after this year I can say goodbye to this place and never look back. I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."

Jacob nodded, he could well understand how this boy would feel desperate to escape, would take care not to risk his chances. He leaned against the desk facing Zach. "You're an intelligent young man. If you and these others were in different social circles but they wanted to be in touch with you, it must have been because they wanted something from you. Surely you see that Agent Young's hypothesis is reasonable?"

Zach's shoulders slumped. "They, well Josh, did want something I have." He looked up defiantly. "It wasn't drugs, though." He sighed as the two looked at him expectantly. "It was my brains. Josh finally woke up to the fact that if he didn't get his GPA up he might not get into college, never get a chance to play college ball. He was blackmailing me to doing his homework, letting him cheat off me on tests."

"Blackmail? What on earth have you done that he could blackmail you?" Jacob wanted to know.

"Nothing. It's just, I've got a sister who's a freshman."

"You mean he threatened her?" Rachel was appalled. "Why didn't you report him?"

"Not threatened like that." Zach snorted. "As for reporting him, as if anyone would believe me when it would be my word against his. No, the deal was I'd do his work and he'd make sure that Lissie wasn't put on the list."

"List?" Jacob and Rachel looked at each other, baffled.

"The hotties and the notties," Zach explained bitterly. "Everyone knows the football players are the ones who put the list up but no one does anything to stop it. It kills the girls who are labeled notties; Josh said he's keep Lissie off the list. Plus he'd keep the other players from bothering her."

Rachel was disgusted. "Ok, I'll buy that's why Josh had your number, but what about the other two?"

"That was Josh's idea," Zach's lips twisted in a grimace. "He was smart enough to know people might get suspicious of his newly improved grades if they saw him hanging out with me. So he recruited Matt and Tim to be go-betweens. Sometimes I'd give one, sometimes the other, the papers for Josh to hand in."

Rachel looked at Zach thoughtfully, processing what he had to say. "Dr. Hood's right, you know. You're a smart kid. Maybe you're smart enough to know that blackmail never ends, usually it escalates. Maybe you decided to take out your blackmailer and the two witnesses at the same time. Maybe you deliberately fed them something to get them off your back, to protect your sister, once and for all."

"No, honestly, I didn't have anything to do with their deaths. Yeah, they were jerks, but I'd never kill anyone."

Jacob intervened. "I believe you Zach. Why don't you go back to class now; if we need to speak to you again, we'll let you know."

Rachel glared as Zach thankfully escaped from the room. She hadn't been done questioning the boy; she felt that he was a viable suspect. Before she could take Hood to task for not letting her do her job, he held up a manila folder.

"Honestly, Rachel. I don't think he did it. He's intelligent, but there's nothing in here to lead me to believe that he's capable of something like this."

"What's that?" Rachel took the folder from him.

"We're in the school psychologist's office," Jacob reminded her. He waved a hand at the file cabinets. "She has files on all of the students in the school, not just their academic records, but their disciplinary records and the results of any school mandated psych tests. Zach is a pretty stable kid."

Rachel grunted as she read through the file. Hood was right, there was nothing in it to suggest that Zach might be a murderer. "Still, I think we should keep an eye on him."

"Oh come on Rachel," Jacob smiled at her. "Didn't you tell me once that smart kids never did anything really bad?"

Rachel returned his smile. "I also said that they could be exceptions," she reminded him. "I'm not convinced Zach doesn't qualify. Someone threatening his sister?" She shrugged. "That could make someone behave out of character."

They were interrupted by a sharp knock on the door. Before they could respond, it flew open. Brittney sailed into the room, a smirk on her face. The girl was dressed in skin-tight jeans and scooped neck, form fitting t-shirt. She plopped herself down in the chair in front of the desk and, ignoring Rachel, looked Jacob up and down. Jacob was slightly discomfited; her expression was more suited to a woman quite a bit older than she.

"I'm Brittney Hansen." she announced. "You wanted to talk to me?"

Jacob could see the dislike of this girl in Rachel's eyes; he thought he should begin the questioning. "Yes, we would. We understand that Josh Erickson was you boyfriend. If it wouldn't upset you, we'd like to ask you a few questions about him."

Brittney stared at him for a beat. "I don't have to tell you anything." She tossed her head. "I'm not stupid you know. I know my rights, I, like, watch TV. I'm a minor, you can't ask me anything without my parents being here."

Jacob gaped at the girl. Of all the possible responses, this was not what he expected. He looked hopelessly at Rachel who smirked at him. He knew she was silently mocking him for thinking this girl needed handling with kid gloves.

"If that's what you want, fine by me," Rachel said. "I can call Sheriff Flood right now and ask him to bring them here." She waited until Brittney smiled at the thought of out-witting them. "Of course, if you want your parents here while I ask you about your, uh, relationship with Josh, that's your business."

"What do you mean, relationship?" Brittney narrowed her eyes. "He was my boyfriend, my parents, like, already know that."

Rachel casually pulled Josh's cell phone out of her satchel. "So you don't care if your parents read your texts about "doing it?" At Brittney's gasp, she cocked her head, "So, do you think you're ready to answer a few questions about Josh?"

"What do you want to know?"

"What was _it_? When he said he hadn't decided if he wanted to do _it_ you told him that if he loved you he would." Rachel arched a brow. "Were you pressuring him to have sex? Or was _it_ something else?"

Rachel slowly dragged the story out of the girl. That summer a new player had joined the football team; a junior who played the same position as Josh. He was also bigger, stronger, and faster. Josh was worried about losing his starting position. Brittney was worried about being tied to a second-stringer.

A few weeks before his death, Josh had confided in her that he was thinking of taking something to help his performance on the team. Brittney swore that Josh had never told her what he was planning to take or where he would be getting it.

"But you don't know what he was planning to take?" Rachel pressed the girl hard.

Brittney once again denied any knowledge. With a disgusted head-shake, Rachel was about to dismiss the girl, but another question occurred to her.

"Did Josh start doing anything different? Start hanging out with different people, at different places?"

"Not really, I mean, he like, spent most of his time with me and the other guys on the team." She hesitated. "But, well, he started working out at the gym in town. He said it had better, you know, equipment than the weight room here."

Rachel and Jacob exchanged glances. This was new information, it could be the break they were looking for. They decided it was time to join up with Felix. As Rachel pulled out her cell phone, it rang in her hand. It was Felix and he had news. The lab boys in Omaha had finished their analysis of the samples and they had faxed their report to the sheriff's office. After assuring Mrs. Zimmerman that they, and Felix, would be back they headed into town.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"What'd they find Doc?" Felix was impatient. "That Pounder guy miss anything big?'

"Give me a few minutes here," Jacob scanned the report quickly, flipping the pages back and forth. A frown creased his face. "Nooo, he didn't miss anything big, but he did miss something small. There's a line in here, from the blood samples, that I don't recognize." He looked up, "these boys definitely ingested something that either caused or contributed to their deaths."

"Well, shit," Flood was disgusted. "We already suspected that. Looks like your fancy tests were pretty useless after all."

"Hardly," Rachel bristled. "At least now we know the chemical composition of what they took, it could lead us to the source." She looked at Flood thoughtfully. "Add this to what we learned at the school this morning and we might be close to cracking this thing."

"What? What did you learn at the school? I talked to those boys for days, they all claimed that they didn't know anything."

Rachel laid out what they had learned from Brittney. Flood was stunned that Josh was planning on taking some kind of illegal substance. He balked, however, when Rachel told him they would be investigating the local gym. He insisted the place was clean.

"Hmm," Felix murmured. He pulled his notebook out of his pocket and flipped it open. "Isn't the gym owned by your brother-in-law?"

Flood reddened. "That has nothing to do with it," he snapped. "Half my deputies work out there. If something funny was going on don't you think they'd have noticed?"

The big man shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Maybe they thought they wouldn't be doing themselves any favors by bringing it to your attention."

Rachel intervened. "All of that is immaterial. The fact is, we have Josh frequenting that place right before he died. And he wasn't in the habit of going there before this summer."

Flood reluctantly agreed. As a show of good-faith, he offered to get a search warrant not only for the gym, but for all the lockers in the locker room. When Rachel expressed doubt that they would have probable cause to search the lockers, Flood smiled grimly.

"We won't have any problems with a warrant. One of the boys who died was the judge's nephew."

As Flood had predicted, there was no trouble getting any of the warrants. He even insisted Rachel and Felix serve them and to take the lead in the search. He was chagrined when Felix discovered a carton of unlabeled bottles of pills in his brother-in-law's office. They took the pills and the brother-in-law back to the police station. While Jacob tested the pills using his portable lab kit, Rachel and Flood interrogated the brother-in-law.

"God-damn it Jerry," thundered Flood, "what in the hell did you think you were doing? What kind of junk are you pushing at that gym of yours?" He narrowed his eyes, "and how many of my deputies have you bribed to look the other way?"

"It's not like that," Jerry protested. "I mean, ok, I'm making a little extra selling steroids, but I'm not bribing anyone." He looked at Flood earnestly, "I'm not stupid, I did my side business when your guys weren't around. None of them suspected anything."

Flood didn't know if he should be mollified that his deputies weren't dirty or mortified that they let a crime be committed right under their noses.

"I personally don't give a damn if you paid any bribes or not," Rachel snarled. "I want to know if you sold any pills to Josh Erickson."

"I never sold Josh anything," Jerry declared. "Like I said, I'm not stupid and it would have been stupid to sell steroids to him."

"Come on, you expect me to believe that?" Rachel scoffed. "A kid like Josh, looking for an edge, eager to buy, and you didn't sell to him?"

Jerry continued his denials. He admitted Josh had approached him; he had brushed him off, pretended he didn't know what he was talking about. In the face of Rachel's disbelief, he played what he thought was his trump card. He wouldn't sell to Josh was because he knew that the high school was implementing mandatory drug tests. He was afraid Josh would rat him out when he failed them.

Rachel kept up the questioning, she refused to believe in his innocence. He was still insisting that he wasn't stupid enough to take the risk of selling to any high school football player when Hood walked into the room with a disgusted look on his face.

"Those pills didn't have anything to do with what happened here." He shot a disgruntled look at Jerry. "But I'm not sure how intelligent he is, those pills aren't steroids, they're glucosamine."

"Glucosamine? What the hell is that?" Jerry demanded.

"It's a dietary supplement, made out of the shells of sea creatures." Jacob shrugged. "Even if he had sold it to that boy, it wouldn't have hurt him. I'm afraid that we're back to square one."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The threesome adjourned to the diner for lunch and a strategy session. They decided all three of them would return to the high school. Jacob wanted to get blood samples from all of the football players; now that he had the unknown chemical line to trace, he wanted to be sure that none of the other players had it in their systems. They would leave the collection of samples up to Felix who would draft the school nurse to assist him. Jacob wanted to question the coach; he couldn't believe that the man was totally ignorant of what his players were up to. After speaking to the coach, he and Rachel would head back to the hospital. The lab wasn't the best, but it was his only chance of replicating the mysterious substance.

Mrs. Zimmerman enthusiastically welcomed Felix, along with Jacob and Rachel, back to the school. She listened to what Felix proposed and she personally bullied the school nurse into assisting Felix. He left the office with a wink for them. She had her current student helper show the other two where the coach could be found.

Their guide pointed out a man standing alone on the sidelines as Coach Conner. They approached him and Rachel made the introductions. Turning practice over to one of his assistants, he led Jacob and Rachel inside to his office. He sprawled back in his chair as Jacob questioned him. He not only denied any knowledge of any illegal drug use, he claimed that he discouraged the practice. He sat up abruptly when Jacob informed him that Agent Lee and the school nurse were on their way to take blood samples from every player.

"You can't do that," Conner objected. "The district already did a drug-screening and my boys all came up clean." He narrowed his eyes, glaring at them. "Besides, you'd need a warrant or something, so you just tell your Agent Lee to take a hike."

Rachel reached into her satchel for a pen and a piece of FBI stationary. She quickly scribbled on the paper, and checking her watch, dated it. "There's your _something_," she announced.

At Conner's grunt of confusion, she explained. "It's an FBI National Security Letter, directing you to give me any and all cooperation in the investigation of a case of suspected terrorism. It has the same weight as a search warrant."

Conner gaped at the smugly smiling Agent Young. "Terrorism? What the hell are you talking about? You, you can't do that."

"She sure as hell can," drawled Flood from the doorway. "And if you know what's good for you you'll cooperate." He shrugged as Conner looked at him in disbelief. "What can I say? I checked with the D.A., he says she has the authority to declare this a case of suspected terrorism if she wants." He raised an eyebrow, "and it looks like she wants."

Still grumbling, the coach led them out to the practice field. They arrived at the same time as Felix and the nurse. Felix had commandeered some students to carry out a table and folding chairs and he began to direct them to set them up. He spied Doc and Agent Young and waved to them.

"All set," he announced. "The nurse here is prepared to take the blood samples and I'll oversee the collection and then bring 'em to you at the hospital Doc."

The coach called the players together and announced that all of the players needed to give up a blood sample. He held up his hand to stop the groans and complaints. He crisply informed them they had no choice, the Feds were in charge now and they were insisting on it.

Jacob faced the crowd of unhappy players and coaches. "Believe me, I wouldn't ask you to do this if I didn't think it was important. Important not only to find out what happened to your friends, but to make sure nothing like this happens to the rest of you."

Felix, with the help of Flood, began to line the boys up. Jacob stood watching as the nurse began taking blood samples, an abstracted look on his face. Rachel sighed, she knew that look and it was one that boded no good.

"What, what's the problem now?"

"I was thinking, how did Josh even know to go looking for whatever it was he used? He must have known, heard of someone else using it."

Rachel gave a snort of exasperation. "Well, duh, yeah. Isn't that why we're getting these samples? To answer that question?"

Jacob shook his head. "No, I'm thinking he learned about it from some adult." He flicked his eyes in the direction of the assistant coaches. "I wouldn't be surprised to find any of them had used steroids, other enhancement drugs, in the past."

"Fine. We'll get blood samples from them as well."

She and Hood approached the bleachers were the men were sitting. Rachel announced that she wanted them to join the line-up to have blood samples taken. When they protested, Jacob said simply that he needed to rule them out as a source of whatever the dead boys had taken. One of the assistant coaches jumped to his feet, an ugly look on his face. He approached Hood with his hands balled into fists.

"What? You bastard! Are you accusing us of selling drugs to our kids? Of using that crap ourselves?"

Rachel slid in front of Hood, her hand going for her weapon. Before she could draw it, before she could say anything, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Felix was there and he gently drew her behind him. Holding up both hands, he confronted the angry man.

"Hey, now, come on. Nobody's accusing you of anything. We just need to dot all the i's and cross all the t's. When we find the bad guys, you don't want them getting off because of some loophole now do you?"

Mollified, the man joined the others in the line. Felix turned to see Rachel regarding him with fury. He threw a hopeful look in Doc's direction.

Jacob hurried into speech. "Um, Rachel, we need to get to the hospital. I'm sure Felix has everything well organized here." Grabbing her arm he tugged her away from Felix. Rachel left unwillingly; her glare told Felix that she'd deal with him later.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jacob was miserable. He knew that Rachel was upset with both him and Felix. She was pacing the lab like an angry cat; her fingers were involuntarily flexing, increasing the resemblance. She looked as if she wanted to physically as well as verbally tear into Felix.

She had been furious when he dragged her away from the football field. She had begun to yell at him, but he had cut her tirade short. With a lifted eyebrow he coolly informed her that it would be inappropriate for her to dress Felix down in front of all of those people. Rachel had starred at him for a beat and her mouth had snapped shut. Unfortunately, she had kept her mouth shut, she hadn't spoken a word to him since. He sighed in frustration and turned his attention back to the whiteboard.

Once he began studying the line the FBI lab had identified, he was quickly able to determine what it was; it was a beta-adrenergic agonist. This went a long way to explaining why the boys had heart attacks. But knowing the what and the why didn't answer the question of how the three athletes had ingested it. His musings were interrupted by Felix's entry into the lab.

"Hey Doc," the big man looked over at Agent Young uneasily. He held out a box. "I've got your blood samples for you."

"I'd like a word Agent Lee," Rachel said icily. "In the hallway. Now."

Felix threw and unhappy look in Doc's direction before heading out. As Rachel began to follow him, Jacob caught her by the arm. Rachel tried to shake him off, but he held her tightly.

"Before you read him the riot act, you might want to ask him why he did it."

Rachel looked at him angrily. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Jacob dropped her arm and turned his back on her. "Why don't you ask him?"

Rachel's mouth opened and then closed. She looked at Hood's stiff back thoughtfully. She headed into the hallway to confront Felix in a slightly calmer frame of mind. He looked at her contritely.

"I'm sorry ma'am. I know I shouldn't have interfered back there but…." he trailed off unhappily.

"Why did it happen Felix? Don't you trust me anymore? Don't you think I can do my job?"

Felix's eyes widened. "What? Hell, no, it's not that. It's just," he looked embarrassed. "It's just, well, I was afraid of you getting hurt again, what might happen if you had to go back on leave."

"Why? Why would that worry you?" She titled her head and looked at him speculatively, "What exactly went on while I was out?"

"Let's just say the other agents assigned to Doc, well, they weren't you."

"What happened Felix?"

"Well, you remember the first agent who replaced you? A woman, named Diane Ferguson."

Rachel nodded; she was the agent who had accompanied Hood on his visit to the rehab facility. She _had_ wondered why Ferguson had been replaced.

"It turned out she didn't have the same attitude as you about minibars." Felix snickered. "It was the middle of the night and Doc showed up in my room. Seems Agent Ferguson helped herself to the contents of the minibar and then tried to crawl into bed with him."

Rachel gaped at Felix. "You mean she…, I mean she was…"

"Yep, drunk as a lord and naked as a jaybird."

Rachel couldn't help it, she burst out laughing. "Ok, I can see where that was awkward for both of you." She narrowed her eyes. "What was the problem with Patterson?"

The smile left Felix's face; his normal cheerful countenance showed no emotion. "Patterson had very definite ideas of how things should be done and who should do them. He made it clear from day one that I was nothing more than his gofer. Any scut work, anything he didn't care to do, that was my job." He held up a hand to stop Rachel's interruption. "It wasn't that I was the junior agent, hell, when I worked with you as a trainee you treated me better than Patterson ever did; he treated me like I was his personal assistant."

Felix took a deep breath. "And he treated Doc just as bad. Patterson made out like he was some kind of idiot savant. Remember how Doc was kind of pissed when he thought I didn't get him a room key?" He waited for Rachel's nod.

"That's because Patterson wouldn't let him have one. Said it wasn't _necessary._ He did lots of shit like that; acted like Doc wasn't to be trusted. Hell, he practically told the locals that Doc couldn't do the job without Patterson holding his hand."

Rachel was stunned. She couldn't believe that Patterson could treat them both so disrespectfully. It was bad enough how he had treated Felix, but to imply to the locals that Hood was less than competent? That was almost insubordination.

"Why did Hood put up with that shit? Why didn't he get rid of him?"

Felix looked at her sideways. "Because of you. Doc said he didn't want you hearing he was having problems adjusting to a new handler, make you think you had to come back before you were ready."

Rachel starred at Felix, chewing her lip, processing what she had heard. Finally she spoke. "I'm sorry that you both had to put up with that kind of shit, but Felix, you've got to let me do my job. You have to trust me, I wouldn't be here if I didn't think, if McGruder didn't think, I was up to it."

Felix's shoulders sagged with relief, he hadn't expected to get off so easy. He grinned at her, "Right, I promise not to get in the way next time some jackass tries to take you down."

Laughing the two returned to the lab where Jacob was running blood samples through the mass spectrometer. Felix sauntered over to the whiteboard and squinted at the equations Jacob had scribbled over it. Rachel joined Hood at the workbench. They exchanged smiles, Jacob was relieved that the tension between them had dissolved. As if offering an olive branch, Rachel asked how the tests on the samples were going.

"I'm not sure," Jacob replied. "So far none of the samples have shown the same line. So while it's good that no one else is taking this stuff it also means that we haven't any leads to follow, any idea of where those boys could have gotten ahold of it."

Felix looked over from the whiteboard. "It? Sounds like you've identified what it was that killed those boys." He squinted at the equations, "from what I remember from my high school chemistry, it looks like there was nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen involved." He looked puzzled, "but I thought those were pretty basic, isn't everything made up of them?"

"Pretty much," Jacobs lips twitched. "It's all in the proportions." He indicated the whiteboard, "And in those proportions, Felix, we have a long acting beta-adrenergic agonist."

"A beta what?" Felix screwed his face up. "What's that when it's at home?"

"A long acting beta-adrenergic agonist," Jacob explained, "is the exact opposite of a beta-blocker."

Felix looked at him in exasperation. "Well that certainly clears things up. What the hell is a beta-blocker?"

"It's for high blood pressure," Rachel put in. She smiled briefly at the looks on Hood's and Felix's faces. "My dad takes it."

"That's one use," Jacob agreed. "A beta-blocker can slow the heart-beat, so by contrast a beta-adrenergic agonist can speed up the heart-beat." He frowned, "that's why the long-acting form of the drug is contraindicated for human use by the FDA, tachycardia is a common side effect. This makes it even more curious that these boys got ahold of it."

"So, this long-acting thingy, that's the cause of death?" Felix wanted to know.

"It certainly explains why those boys had heart attacks," Jacob agreed. "The stress of practice would have raised their heart rate normally. With this in their systems, a myocardial infarction was a distinct possibility."

"But that doesn't make sense," Rachel objected. "Wouldn't Pounder have discovered this in his autopsies?"

"Not necessarily," Jacob said. "He'd have no reason to test for it. In the first place long acting beta-adrenergic agonists were prescribed for asthma, which none of the boys suffered from. And like I said, the FDA issued a contraindication for the use of the long-acting form in humans. Pounder had no reason to test for it." He shrugged, "the FBI lab boys only found it because I asked them to look for anything out of the ordinary."

"Ok," Rachel said slowly. "This stuff isn't used in medicine for humans. But it must still be used in something? I mean, it has to be, these kids weren't chemistry geniuses, they couldn't whip this stuff up in a home lab." She looked at Hood, "Do you think Zach could have done it?"

Jacob shook his head decisively. "No, this line is too pure, there's no way it was made in anything other than a fully equipped lab. There's no way Zach could have done it."

"Well, if it's not used for humans, is it used for animals?" Felix asked. "There sure are enough of them around here. That kid Matt, he lived on a farm."

Jacob considered this carefully. "It could be, I'd have to do a search in the patent database, see if anyone has patented this exact composition of the drug."

While Jacob ran his search Felix filled Rachel in on what he had discovered when he had visited Matt's parents. The farm Matt lived on turned out to be a cattle farm; his family raised Angus beef.

"Rachel? Felix? I think I've found our answer."

Jacob turned his computer so they could see the screen. The patent database had, once again, provided the information they needed. It seemed the formula Jacob had identified had been patented under the name Showmaxx. It was an additive for cattle feed; cattle who had Showmaxx added to their diet gained muscle mass faster.

"You mean it's like steroids for cows?" Felix asked. "But why bother? Who cares how fast a cow grows?"

"The farmer," Jacob replied. "The faster the cow grows, the fewer days it spends on the feedlots, the sooner the farmer can sell the cow to the slaughter house and make a profit."

"Wait a second," Rachel objected. "You said this beta drug was contraindicated for humans. Well, if the cow eats the drug and I eat the cow, won't it hurt me?"

"Possibly," Jacob murmured as he returned to the computer. His fingers flew over the keyboard. He clicked on a link and once again turned the computer toward Felix and Rachel. "The use of these additives in cattle farming is a bit controversial. Short term studies have shown no ill effects in humans. But," he shrugged, "there haven't been any long-term generational studies done. And some slaughter houses won't buy cattle that have been fed it, they claim the quality of the meat is inferior."

"Why would those kids take a cow food additive? That doesn't make sense." Felix said.

Jacob looked at him sadly. "I'm afraid it does. You said it yourself Felix, this stuff is like steroids for cows. Those boys probably thought it would have the same effect on them, make them gain muscle mass quicker and have the added advantage of not showing up on the mandatory steroid tests they had to take at school. We'll have to check out the Schuler farm. See if Matt's family uses this Showmaxx for their cattle."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

There were several cars pulled up in front of the Schuler farmhouse. As they got out of the SUV, Jacob nodded toward the fields. Several young men were herding cows toward the barn. Felix headed off to question them and poke around the barn. Rachel took a deep breath and knocked on the door. Questioning grief-stricken parents was never a pleasant job.

Jacob slowly outlined his hypothesis to the Schuler's. Much to his surprise, Schuler was adamant that the boys couldn't have taken Showmaxx. He hesitated to push the man, he respected his need to grieve for his son, but he needed answers.

"How can you be so sure?" he asked.

"We don't use that shit," Schuler answered flatly. "We strictly use vegetarian feed with our cattle. It produces a better product, so we get top dollar for our beef. Hell, the slaughter house we deal with wouldn't even touch beef that's fed that stuff."

"Could your son, the other boys, have purchased it on their own?" Rachel asked.

"Not hardly," Schuler snorted. "Showmaxx is damned expensive." He frowned. "Stuff costs thousands of dollars. None of those boys had access to that kind of money."

"Maybe they got it from a neighbor," Rachel suggested. "Do you know anyone who uses it?"

"No, most of us around here…" Schuler trailed off thoughtfully. "Actually, Showmaxx isn't used for general cattle farming."

Jacob looked confused. "What do you mean, it's a food additive for cattle."

"No," Schuler was firm. "Zilmaxx is what you use for general cattle farming." He looked at Jacob and Rachel apologetically. "I guess I'm still not thinking straight. But Showmaxx, that's an additive for calf feed."

He smiled slightly at the perplexed looks on their faces. "It's for calves being raised for show, that's why they call it Showmaxx. If you want to know who around here is using that stuff, you'll have to check with the head of the 4-H club."

When asked who that would be, Schuler did more than provide them with a name. He offered to call the man himself. While Schuler was on the phone, Felix rejoined them. He quietly confirmed there was no Showmaxx on the farm. Indeed, from what he heard from the boys herding the cattle, the majority of the farmers in the area didn't use the additives.

Schuler came back with a thoughtful look on his face. "According to Casey only one kid is using Showmaxx. Josh's cousin, Kathy Brandon."

Thanking Mr. Shuler, they headed over to the Brandon farm. Brandon was horrified when Jacob once again outlined his hypothesis. As much as he hated to admit it, it was possible the boys could have gotten ahold of the Showmaxx in his barn. Josh had been working on the farm all summer and had even helped his cousin Kathy feed her steer.

He stood up. "Well, there's one sure way to find out."

He led them to the barns explaining that Showmaxx was added by to the feed by weight. He knew how much he had purchased and how many days his daughter had been feeding it to her steer. They should be able to tell if any of the additive was missing by weighing it. Felix helped the man carry the bag of Showmaxx to the scale. Jacob did some quick calculations in his head; taking into account the amount of feed that had been used, there was almost a pound unaccounted for.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"They took what?" Flood was incredulous.

Slowly, for the third time in as many hours, Jacob outlined his theory. How the boys, in a foolish attempt to gain a competitive advantage for football had taken the additive. They had thought it was the perfect solution; it would give them added muscle and be undetectable in the school mandated drug tests.

"Jesus Christ," Flood swore, "how could they be so stupid? Josh especially, his family raises cattle, how could he think it was safe?"

"Why shouldn't he?" retorted Jacob. "These additives are specifically sold for cattle intended for slaughter, for human consumption. If it's safe to eat meat that contains the additive, why would it be any more dangerous to take the additive directly?"

"So these kids died of natural causes? No crime, no illegal behavior involved?"

"I don't know how _natural_ I'd call it, but yes, there was no outside agency responsible for what happened here." Jacob shook his head, "I'll be getting in touch with the FDA to get them to strengthen the warning labels on this stuff, but otherwise, no, there's nothing here to concern law enforcement."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rachel relaxed as the cabin lights dimmed in preparation for take-off. She had been surprised, when leaving Flood's office, Hood had requested Felix find them a flight back to DC as soon as possible. Normally Hood liked to stick around after they had wrapped up a case; he liked to make sure there were no loose ends. She wondered if this desire to get back to DC as quickly as possible was a holdover from his time with Patterson. Or if maybe it was something a little more personal, if this case had brought back some unpleasant memories. She shifted in her seat to move closer to Hood, so that their conversation wouldn't disturb the other passengers on this late night flight.

"You ok?"

Jacob's lips twitched. "I should be asking you that."

"No, that's not your job. I already told you, Felix, I'm fine." She refused to be put off. "I wondered if maybe, what with your dad being a football coach, this case brought up some memories."

Jacob leaned closer, his head almost touching hers. "Not really," he murmured. "Why do you ask?"

"I dunno, you just seem kind of….distracted?"

"I guess I was thinking of the waste. My dad, he had the sense to teach his players that football wasn't the be all and end all in life." He shook his head, "It's a shame that no one bothered to teach those boys the same thing."

"You're sure you're ok?"

"I'm fine Rachel. You know, you should try to get some sleep, it'll be pretty late when we land in DC."

Rachel yawned, she had to admit she was tired. With a sigh of contentment she leaned her head against Hood's shoulder. She smiled sleepily as she felt him shift a bit in his seat so that her head was in a more comfortable position.

"Rachel?"

"Umm?"

"It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back Hood."

After a few minutes her even breathing told Jacob that Rachel had fallen asleep. He looked across the aisle and was pleased to see that Felix was dead to the world; earbuds in and eyes closed. Jacob took the opportunity to drop a soft kiss on Rachel's hair. He smiled softly as he leaned back and closed his eyes. He finally felt, after five long months, that maybe things were going to work out after all.


End file.
